Flagler schools taking first steps into digital future

Schools are gradually crossing the digital divide, relying more and more on mobile devices such as iPads and less on three-ring binders and printed books.

ANNIE MARTINEDUCATION WRITER

PALM COAST — Walk into Brock O'Shell's classroom, and you'll notice a large paper cutout of a broken circle with a line through it and the words "power on." You'll see pre-teens huddled over devices the size of their laps, using pen-like tools to write notes. On the desks are traditional textbooks open to a story about forest fires. "We don't have to sharpen our pencils now," 11-year-old Dona Hoffman said. Schools are gradually crossing the digital divide, relying more and more on mobile devices like iPads and less on three-ring binders and printed books. O'Shell's sixth-graders are a little ahead of their Flagler County peers, though: They're each assigned an iPad that they can carry with them 24 hours a day, seven days per week.O'Shell's and Joseph Jakubowski's classes at Belle Terre Elementary are pioneering this arrangement in Flagler. But within two to three years, every Flagler student could have his or her own mobile device, like an iPad. By the end of the year, about half of the district's teachers will have iPads and more students will likely have them early next year, said Ryan Deising, the district's technology director. Outfitting every student with an iPad isn't cheap. The devices will cost about $370 apiece with a school discount, so that's about $4.4 million for the nearly 12,000 students enrolled in Flagler's traditional public schools. Money from the half-cent sales tax, which voters renewed in August, will help. The tax is expected to generate about $40 million over the next 10 years for capital expenses such as technology and facilities construction. But teachers say iPads are helping them save money in other ways. O'Shell said his class used nearly a whole box of paper during the first month of school before they distributed the iPads to students."I think initial cost is what people look at but I don't think they look at the cost of paper and notebooks," he said. Additionally, giving more students access to technology will help prepare them for the "21st century workplace," Deising said. "We're trying to get our kids ready to participate and compete in the world economy," he said. State policymakers are also pushing school districts in this direction. All Florida students can now take some, or all, of their classes online. By 2015, all instructional materials must be delivered to students electronically. This year's high school sophomores and younger students are required to take at least one online class to earn diplomas. The state is gradually phasing in online standardized testing, too. These changes come at a cost, and districts will have to fork over about $1 billion that isn't provided by the state, according to the Florida School Boards Association. Aside from the state mandates, local teachers say iPads provide a multitude of advantages for their young techies: They can easily organize their work in folders and send assignments and quizzes to their teachers' devices. In seconds, teachers can project their own iPad or any student's device on a screen at the front of the room to give instructions or display top-notch work."We can just see an overall change in the way kids are doing their homework," O'Shell said. "They're taking their time. They go back to make things look a little nicer." Dona and Gabriella Dennany, also 11, recently worked on a reading assignment together. The girls were born the same year the first Apple retail stores opened, and though they'd only had iPads for two weeks, they easily showed a reporter how they write notes, erase mistakes and send homework to their teacher using the devices.Gabriella said their teacher encourages them to be "creative but professional." That means it's OK to use any color when they take notes, but they must use black for homework and tests. That's just one of the iPad rules, the girls say. They have to come to class with the iPads fully charged, they can't allow other people to touch them and they have to do their homework."Math is my hardest subject," Dona said. "When I got the iPad, I knew I had to do my homework." Likewise, Julie Menendez , whose 11-year-old son Alex is in Jakubowski's class, said the iPad is helping Alex become "eager about getting work done" while teaching him to be responsible. "I'm an old-school kind of person, so technology is not my thing, but Alex is extremely excited about it," said Menendez, the dean at Belle Terre.